As Illinois lawmakers wrestle with the volatile issue of carrying concealed firearms, the question might arise: How many residents can currently do so?

According to a Tribune analysis, about 1 out of every 234 people.

Records show that about 55,000 men and women — most of them law enforcement officers — are authorized by state or federal law to carry weapons in public in Illinois.

Some can carry a gun anytime, others while on duty or at their workplace. And one elected official is the only person in Illinois allowed to carry a concealed weapon under a rarely used, 140-year-old statute designating him a "conservator of the peace," according to state officials.

"It surprises me that there's nobody else," said the conservator,Chicago Heights City Prosecutor Dennis Gianopolus, who said he rarely finds it necessary to be armed.

"Very seldom do I carry," he said. "There are times, in the realm of what I'm doing, that I will carry. If I'm going into a bad neighborhood, I don't go with a police escort."

While most cannot legally carry a weapon, more than 1 in 10 of the state's nearly 13 million residents hold a Firearm Owner's Identification Card, the state-issued permit required to purchase or possess a firearm.

That number is growing rapidly. In 2012, state police received a record 338,614 applications — a 5.3 percent increase over the number of applications filed the previous year, and a 50 percent jump since 2006.

Moreover, the number of people who actually hold FOID cards has increased an average of about 72,000 a year since 2009, according to state police data.

Seven separate months in 2012 saw record numbers of applications. Those months included December, when a panel of judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that Illinois' ban on public possession of firearms was unconstitutional and ordered lawmakers to craft a measure to allow citizens to legally carry guns.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has sought a rehearing before the appellate court's full panel of 10 judges, hoping to reverse the earlier ruling.

Amid the growing national debate over gun control, state lawmakers have beenstudying ways to abide bythe court ruling.

On Tuesday, state Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, introduced a bill that would allow gun owners to get a license authorizing them to carry a firearm openly, or concealed, or in their vehicles. It would bar the public release of information about license holders.

Also Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simonsaid 15freshmanlegislators would gather input from both sides of the debate.

So, who can carry a gun legally in Illinois?

Law enforcement officers

The most recent available data from the U.S. Department of Justice in June 2012 indicates about 43,000 state, local and federal law enforcement officers work in Illinois, not including security and police forces at the state's three main military bases.

The federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act — or LEOSA — allows them to carry a firearm in all 50 states, with a few restrictions.

Off-duty officers may not carry a weapon on an airplane, inside certain government buildings or on private property where the owners have forbidden firearms, according to the law.

Otherwise they are free to go out in public while armed with either the weapons they carry on the job or personal firearms, said Tamara Cummings, general council for the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, the state's largest police union.

"If any agency tried to restrict an officer's ability to carry off-duty, I would say that's a violation of federal law," Cummings said. "My position is there is no qualification under the law as to whether it's on-duty or off-duty."

Retired officers

Retired law enforcement officers alsoare allowed to carry firearms under the federal law if they meet the qualifications, abide by similar restrictions for current officers and register with either their former department or the Illinois Retired Officer Concealed Carry program.

The program offered by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board maintains a roster of about 5,000retired officers who have obtained the permit.

That number could be a small fraction of all the retired officers who hold permits, because they can also apply for one through the department they served with or could have moved to Illinois after retirement, according toKenton Manning, who coordinates the retired officers program.

To obtain a permit, retired officers must have served at least 10 years, left their departments in good standing, have a clean criminal record and have no history of mental illness. They also must take an annual firearms test to show proficiency with their weapons.

"If you meet that criteria, you have to shoot once a year and you have to carry the permit card ... issued by your department" or by the retired officers concealed carry program, Manning said.